Justice Department to give House all “Fast & Furious” documents
Chickens coming home to roost? The Trump Justice Department has agreed to provide the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee all the “Fast & Furious” documents that the Obama administration had refused to provided.
In June 2012, the House of Representatives voted to hold then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to turn over certain documents related to the botched sting, which he dismissed as “politically motivated.” The House also approved a civil measure against the attorney general, which allowed the House Oversight Committee to eventually file a lawsuit against Holder over his failure to produce the subpoenaed documents. That lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington in August 2012.
Now, it appears that six-year long court battle is coming to an end. “The Department of Justice under my watch is committed to transparency and the rule of law. This settlement agreement is an important step to make sure that the public finally receives all the facts related to Operation Fast and Furious,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Wednesday.
Why does the House want these documents? And why did Eric Holder stonewall them?
Operation Fast and Furious took place from late 2009 to early 2011 when the Phoenix Field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed the illegal gun sales of nearly 2,000 firearms with the intent to track the sellers and buyers, believed to be part of Mexican drug cartels.
Two of the weapons linked to the operation were later recovered near the scene of a December 2010 shootout where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed. This, plus whistleblowing, caused the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to open investigations into the botched operation. [emphasis mine]
This was the first Obama scandal, and at any other time in our history, would have brought him down. Imagine, an administration is purposely allowing illegal guns sales, in large numbers, and then failing to properly track those illegal guns as they move into Mexico to be used by the drug cartels.
In our time, however, the partisan mainstream press is only interested in stories that make Democrats look good, or Republicans look bad. It is shameful, and disgusts me, as a journalist.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Chickens coming home to roost? The Trump Justice Department has agreed to provide the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee all the “Fast & Furious” documents that the Obama administration had refused to provided.
In June 2012, the House of Representatives voted to hold then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to turn over certain documents related to the botched sting, which he dismissed as “politically motivated.” The House also approved a civil measure against the attorney general, which allowed the House Oversight Committee to eventually file a lawsuit against Holder over his failure to produce the subpoenaed documents. That lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington in August 2012.
Now, it appears that six-year long court battle is coming to an end. “The Department of Justice under my watch is committed to transparency and the rule of law. This settlement agreement is an important step to make sure that the public finally receives all the facts related to Operation Fast and Furious,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement Wednesday.
Why does the House want these documents? And why did Eric Holder stonewall them?
Operation Fast and Furious took place from late 2009 to early 2011 when the Phoenix Field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed the illegal gun sales of nearly 2,000 firearms with the intent to track the sellers and buyers, believed to be part of Mexican drug cartels.
Two of the weapons linked to the operation were later recovered near the scene of a December 2010 shootout where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed. This, plus whistleblowing, caused the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to open investigations into the botched operation. [emphasis mine]
This was the first Obama scandal, and at any other time in our history, would have brought him down. Imagine, an administration is purposely allowing illegal guns sales, in large numbers, and then failing to properly track those illegal guns as they move into Mexico to be used by the drug cartels.
In our time, however, the partisan mainstream press is only interested in stories that make Democrats look good, or Republicans look bad. It is shameful, and disgusts me, as a journalist.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Eric Holder can take these documents and leverage them into a powerful run for president against Trump in 2020.
He can run on his record as a Deputy Attorney General for Clinton where he was the prime representative of the president in the Mark Rich last minute of the last day pardon, Clinton had to pay off. And he was Obama’s Attorney General during the Fast And Furious (Not the movie) operation. Proud moments in our country’s history. To listen to Holder from his point of view he alone was the sole defender of the Constitution. And in fact he was probably, along with Obama the biggest threat to the Constitution and plainly a tool of the Globalists and their “Fundamental Change” agenda.
This should work out well for all involved. Add this to the Horowitz report and the Congress and hopefully Attorney General Sessions are going to be very busy in the coming weeks and months.
Cotour: In general, I think you place too much faith and hope in inspector general Horowitz. I sincerely doubt he is going to do as you imagine.
Horowitz and his report / investigation is the entre for Sessions to do what must be done in the legal realm. If Sessions and his inaction is waiting for the proper timing to take care of business, then he is waiting for that.
And I agree that it remains to be seen whether Sessions will do what must be done. IMO He would have to eat his own, he is one of them, and I do not know whether he has the stones or “proper” instruction to do that. And then it will be up to Trump and firing Sessions and whether he will insist on the cleansing that is so desperately needed. Remember, Trump is between a bit of a rock and a hard place while the Mueller investigation is still active.
If in the course of time nothing required happens then something will have to be done or we must just come to the realization that we are in fact owned and the property of “Others”. At that point the Constitution is just a party favor that the corrupt leadership of the FBI, the DOJ and Hillary and her operatives will be wrapping their presents to each other in. There must be great disruption.
We wait, but patience wears thin.
And here we have a local state corollary to the Federal situation.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-nypd-is-ready-to-arrest-harvey-weinstein-will-district-attorney-cy-vance-finally-agree-to-let-them
We know that district attorney Cy Vance has taken “donations” mightily from Weinstein, if he indicts him then maybe there will be hope for Sessions and the much larger and disruptive Federal situation. One may indicate the other. (?)
Imagine, an administration is purposely allowing illegal guns sales, in large numbers, and then failing to properly track those illegal guns as they move into Mexico to be used by the drug cartels.
I recall at the time that the Democrats were waging a PR campaign to ban guns in the USA based on cartel violence south of the border. We found out later that the Obama admin was running guns to the cartels and when this was exposed to the public, the PR to ban guns based on cartel violence stopped.
Weren’t there some emails that showed some ATF or DOJ people requesting information that could be used to support the call to action on gun bans?
There was also a press conference where Obama alluded to some gun control actions being taken behind the scenes but that he couldn’t talk about.
The corruption of the Obama administration was only surpassed by a complicit media that covered up the tens of thousands of deaths south of the border just like they covered up Hezbollah running drug rings and money laundering operations in the USA.
The real question is why the Congress (House) did not incarcerate Holder for his contempt of Congress.
Chris:
Congress is a political body and not a law enforcement agency, and while they could have had their Sergeant At Arms arrest Holder that is unlikely to have happened. If the Congress was to use arrest and confinement as a political weapon most all Democrats and Republicans, both and empowered and employees, would be whiling away their time behind bars and there would be no one to run the government. Something to think about.
[as well…..Louis Lerner was recommended for Contempt charges under H.Res.574 (2014) ]
I’d recommend we all refresh ourselves as to who does what to whom, under our system.
When the democrats went after harriet myers, (under Bush) they chose to file a Federal lawsuit instead of recommending prosecution to the DC Attorney, under the relevant Statute.
“Contempt of Congress is defined in statute, 2 U.S.C.A. § 192, enacted in 1938, which states that any person who is summoned before Congress who “willfully makes default, or who, having appeared, refuses to answer any question pertinent to the question under inquiry” shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a maximum $1,000 fine and 12 month imprisonment.”
[This is not as black/white as it appears. Holder was an Executive Branch functionary at the time, and there are valid Constitutional arguments (unitary executive) to be made that the office of the AG is under exclusive jurisdiction of the President. The buck stopped at Obama.]
“Following a contempt citation, the presiding officer of the chamber is instructed to refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; according to the law it is the duty of the U.S. Attorney to refer the matter to a grand jury for action. ”
-current US Attorney for the District of Columbia= Jessie K. Liu (appointed by Trump & approved by the Senate in 2017.)
Robert wrote: “This was the first Obama scandal”
Recently (and in the past) Obama bragged that he did not have any embarrassing scandals. How shameless does he have to be to not be embarrassed by this scandal?
The last I heard, in 2013, guns allowed to pass to the drug cartels were found at the scenes of the murders of 300 Mexican citizens. At that time, only about half the guns had been recovered in this way. As far as the Fast and Furious program was concerned, this was the only way to track these guns after the sales — finding them abandoned at crime scenes. What a terrible tracking method.
wodun is correct. It was obvious even at the time the scandal broke that the ATF was being used by Obama and Holder to allow guns into the hands of Mexican criminals in order to make sales of guns in the US look like a bad idea. Before Fast and Furious, there were news reports that US guns were being found at Mexican crime scenes, but it turned out that US-sold guns were fewer than had been originally reported. Obviously, Holder and Obama decided to increase the number of US guns found at Mexican crime scenes to a number that would cause a change in American attitudes toward gun sales.
Instead, it only caused distress and sorrow in at least 300 Mexican families.
Cotour I see this as a Separation of Powers issue not a political one although I fully would expect political repercussions. Perhaps a good thing.
Wayne,
First, I knew the BtB audience would have the details on the statute – thanks. I knew that contempt had been around for some time but not the details.
As I noted to Cotour I see this as a Separation of Powers issue between two equal powers: Legislative and Executive. I see the contempt charge and the necessary incarceration of Holder as right and necessary exercise of the Legislative Power to counter the wrongs of the Executive. This type of correct action in the past would have worked to curtail the types of abuses by, and unchecked increases of the power of the Executive. These types of actions along with “Power of the Purse” actions would serve to hold back a now (my view) overly powerful Executive.
Chris:
To be a bit more specific related to the Congress arresting someone. In order to relieve someone of their freedom I.E. arrest them and hold them against their will, there must be the exercise of duly passed Constitutionally based law enforced by a duly empowered agency that enforces law I.E. a police department, the FBI or in the case of the Congress their own Sergeant at arms, the Congresses “police” department.
The Congress being a political body that although creates and passes law is not empowered to do as you suggest, arrest someone at their whim other than using their Sergeant at arms and that arrest would be seen as a political move short circuiting the legal system and due process. Arrest, I would think unless both party’s agreed that the individual has done something so egregious that neither would view them being arrested as being a political attack might be the only time something like that would be done. Or the leadership of which ever party saw themselves as being so omnipotent that they just did not care about any push back. And that might be a very dangerous place for the country to find itself.
Just like the coming Inspector General Horowitz report that may well (Read must) reveal over the top corruption in the FBI and the DOJ as I understand it has no ability to make arrests but will make recommendations to the DOJ (A law enforcement agency) to indict (Or not) those identified as having going beyond their charge and have become political weapons for in this case a political party, the Democrats. And this is where the situation gets interesting, how eager will the DOJ be to indict and prosecute their own investigators, the FBI, and prosecutors, their fellows working or “retired” from the DOJ?
There are two realms, the Political realm where empowered politicians and those who they hire and work for them exist in a kind of “special” condition related to the interpretation of law and separation of powers, and there is the Pedestrian realm where the rest of us exist where law is a bit more defined and tangible (Read: feared).
Cotour–
not, quite, exactly how it’s supposed to work….
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/boehner-wont-issue-arrest-warrant-lerner-if-holder-fails-prosecute-her
(May 2014)
“House Speaker John Boehner indicated on Sunday that if Attorney General Eric Holder doesn’t proceed with the contempt charge against former IRS official Lois Lerner, that will be the end of it.”
“The contempt charge has gone to the attorney general. And it’s up to the attorney general, Eric Holder, to prosecute this. And to assign someone to prosecute the case. Now will they do it? We don’t know. But the ball is in his court,” Boehner told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo.”
Thank you Wayne, yes, the Attorney General, a presidential political appointee, is THEE very important chain of command component that I carelessly omitted.
Sessions will certainly be under the gun very, very soon and I am not certain that he has the testicular fortitude or political isolation and needed objectivity to do what MUST be done. We wait, I would like to be pleasantly surprised by him.
“”The contempt charge has gone to the attorney general. And it’s up to the attorney general, Eric Holder, to prosecute this. And to assign someone to prosecute the case. Now will they do it? We don’t know. But the ball is in his court,” Boehner told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo.”
Yeah, we were all waiting for Holder, who himself was held in contempt of Congress, to announce that he was going to prosecute Learner. We are still waiting. And there in is an example of the difference between the Political realm and the Pedestrian realm.
Learner even if there was no direct order by Obama to do what she did, weaponized the IRS to benefit the Democrats, she needed to be made an example of. There is nothing more feared than the IRS by the Pedestrian realm, which has been demonstrated is a political tool of fear. Like the FISA court it too needs to be eliminated.